Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Svatantriya. Freedom. One of the aspects of the Absolute Universal
Supreme Energy is freedom. Unbounded, unlimited, freedom. Inexplicably
uninhibited Conscious Energy. Eternal presence with no boundaries. A
Universe so entirely free it can and does, unfold upon Herself, weaving
an intricate web of everyone and everything. Svatantriya is a Sanskrit
term and means “self weaving freedom.” A Bug’s Life,..the whole adventure took place in a drop of water.The Uni – verse, or One-turn, is
constantly unfolding upon itself and holds all the unlimited
multi-verses within it. Just think of all the little universes spinning
together, your own body, all the rest of the bodies, all the forests,
oceans, heavens, all animals, beings, and on and on, all simultaneously
pulsing with potential, with life force at this very moment in a
symphony of ecstatic being we call, Life. If that doesn’t make sense,
think of the movie A Bug’s Life,..the whole adventure took place in a drop of water.

One of the great gifts of the yoga practice, or hopefully any
spiritual practice, is to experience or recognize this Universal energy
(Spirit) within and as yourself, and ultimately with in and as
everything and everyone around you.

You
are a Universe within the Universe and the Universe is happening as
you. As Stephen Hawking said, “you are what the Universe is doing.” This
is it, this moment, this body, this lifetime, your heartbeat right now.
Svatantriya, unfolding and weaving the entire cosmos and you are woven
inextricably into it. Whoa.

The desire to feel free is a very powerful motivator. This desire
instigates everything from a nation starting a revolutionary or civil
war seeking independence from a dictator, to the guy next door starting a
hatha yoga practice seeking freedom from low back pain. Everyone wants
to feel free. We are always seeking freedom either “from” something, or
someone, or freedom “to” something or someone. We abuse drugs,
alcohol, etc.. to be free from pain, and we flee oppressed countries to be free to earn enough money to care for our families. Freedom is empowerment, having the capacity to choose, freedom from, or freedom to. The other side of that choice is the disempowered story, which is the
victim story. When you feel free, you are experiencing your essential
Nature, you feel empowered. You recognize your birthright that is
Svatantriya.

Photo by Laura Kay

to care for our families. Freedom is empowerment, having the capacity to choose, freedom

Freedom is the difference between being a victim or being empowered.
Ultimately, it is a choice, on some deep level, no matter what the
circumstance. The highest teaching of Anusara yoga is the first
principle, ‘Open to Grace’. To me it means, ‘open to whatever Life is
presenting you in this moment’, which sometimes has to include bad,
crummy stuff we don’t like or want. That takes courage. The courage to
engage your heart, having fear, and facing the scary, unknown anyway.
It means open to ‘what is. The tantric teachings call it the ‘yes’, no
matter what, and then the empowered yogi looks for and acts in the
highest way that enhances the greater flow of Life.

Victor Frankel, holocaust survivor, author of Man’s Search for Meaning,
talks about the way he survived because ‘they’ couldn’t imprison his
heart and mind. While physically he was imprisoned, he was free in his
heart and mind. He was ‘free’ to search out the beauty in the iris of
the dead fish head served to him in a bowl of dirty water as dinner, and
he was grateful. When Annie Herz-Sommer, the oldest surviving
holocaust survivor, was recently asked what her secret of life is, she
answered, “Optimism, and looking for the good. I see beauty everywhere. I
know about the bad things, but I look for the good things.” 109 ys
Holocaust Survivor. If anyone has earned the right to hold the ‘victim’
story it would be both these great beings, and yet they consciously actively chose
to look for beauty, look for the good when things were bad, bad, bad!!!
And the greatest part of these stories, is there is gratitude.
Gratitude for life, gratitude for the blessing of the challenge. There
isn’t a denial of the bad, or pushing it away, it is a free choice to
actively affirm good, beauty, what IS life affirming of the whole cycle of life.

Freedom is your intrinsic nature. “You are not a bound being seeking
freedom, you are free being, free to choose to whom and what and how you
bind yourself to.” –Douglas Brooks. This is one of the most liberating
teachings I’ve ever received. The contemplation reveals an opportunity
of empowerment in life as opposed to living as a victim of your own
story. Free to choose to bind yourself, and create attachments.
Attachments that serve the whole cycle of Life are the ones you want to
make. You want to be attached to your spouse and kids! I feel so happy
two of my friends who are gay and have been together for over 40 years,
and FINALLY this week were free to legally marry, to public affirm their
committed devotion to each other for all the world to witness.

That public expression of chosen attachment, the chosen bond, actually
creates freedom. You are free to choose your mate, choose your job, your
home, choose how you spend money, what vehicle, kids or not, adopt or
not, what you do with your time, energy and money, what ideas and
beliefs you hold, the people you hang out with, pretty much everything.
Or do you have a story of being held captive by attachments to your
partner, your career, finances, your friends, possessions, kids or not,
etc. etc? This is a big contemplation, attachment vs. freedom. Will the
story of your life, your myth, be one of victim or one of the empowered
hero?

Yoga’s boons are tools for empowered living. With practice, you learn
you have a choice and you learn how to choose. You learn you are free
to look for, to actively seek an opening, an opportunity, the good, the
interconnectedness underlying everything and all experience. Easy
when life gives the good stuff, the happy, happy, joy, joy. Looking for
the Highest, or ‘good’ isn’t denying or ignoring horrible, demonic evil
actions being chosen in the world. There is NO way to explain away
hideous evil choices people make and do to others, especially if you
have been in the path of anything atrocious. Most everyone has
experienced some degree of being on the receiving end of someone else
choosing to do harm and create suffering. Another great teaching I
learned from Dr. Brooks is the good news is, you are a free being, free
to choose, the bad news is, so is everyone else. Unfortunately, there
are people whose hearts are so blocked from their connection to the
Divine and each other, they do ugly things to each other and our planet.
This is where empowerment and freedom of the heart and mind are
challenged. Ultimately, the response, what you do with tragedy, is the
juncture between empowerment or victimhood.

The practice of yoga, (practice meaning over and over, with devotion
to the universal Energy within and without) coming back to your mat,
your seat in meditation, the mantra, the ‘yoga practices’, cultivates
the tools and capacity to see even dark experiences as expressions of
the One. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna (the Divine) tells Arjuna (the
Soul), again and again, that he is everything, both delicious and
horrific. “I am the death that carries off all things… of beasts I am
the king of beasts, I am the beauty of the beautiful.” Krishna. The Gita
is something every yogi eventually will read and contemplate.

The highest perspective is the knowing that the Universe is so free
even the ‘bad’ horrifying experiences are woven in as part of the web of
Life’s cycles. Seeing the dark as an expression of the Universal
doesn’t mean you like it, support it, grab or push against it, it’s the
acknowledgement that is the empowerment. Then you are free to choose.

To me, the yoga is to look for and make the Universal connection in
any experience. The empowered freedom of choice is how you consciously
respond to and contribute to the world, no matter what. What will you do
with your experiences? How will you show up? Can you be grateful for
even the challenging hard parts of life? Will your thought, word and
deed create more freedom, beauty, love and light ,…or not? Every breath,
every moment is another opportunity to exercise your free will of choice.
You are a free being, free to choose how you receive Life, all of it’s
experiences and happenings, how you move in the world, what you think,
say, and do. You will make a difference, make a wave on this Ocean of
embodied Spirit. What difference will your wave make? You are free to
you weave your own life and your choices will be the legacy you leave.
The Universe is so free, out of it’s own freedom it has chosen to become
you, therefore, you are free, free to choose. You are Svatantriya.
Choose Freedom, choose Love, choose Gratitude. (It’s always your choice.)

Happy 4th of July! Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. That is the birthright of the whole planet... Not just U.S.

“The secret to Happiness is Freedom, the secret to Freedom is Courage.” – Thucydides 471-440 bc

About Benita (BJ)

Internationally renown Certified Anusara® Yoga Teacher, Mom of 3 young men, Grandma of 4.
Founder of Heart Core® Yoga, Handstands Anonymous™ and a co-founder of the Anusara® School of Hatha Yoga. Hypnobirthing® practitioner, Reiki Master, and practitioner of other healing, nature based modalities.
Student of all things Grace, Love and Life.